Kid Criminals (2015)

Two Part Series

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STORYLINE

‘Kid Criminals’ is all about rehabilitation in an Indiana prison, it’s about erasing an action that may otherwise, destroy these kid’s futures. Although, perhaps that in itself is a bit of an oxymoron, as deleting a prison sentence on paper, certainly doesn’t hold up against this televised admittance of their crimes.

Despite the confused ethics of the programme itself, it was well-made, with the young contributors proving extremely self-aware throughout. ‘Kid Criminals’ learned to play on our morals more than once. We learned to sympathise with the kids, learned how teaching over punishment is favourable and how, in most cases, it works. The show provides the figure of 10% as the rate of re-offence, whereas in the UK, where the scheme is to punish rather than to rehabilitate, the rate is at almost 80%. So is this the way forward? Should we aim to understand those we call monsters, and work with them, rather than against them? According to the evidence here, yes, we should.

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